Nova Blocks 2.4.0

Nova Blocks 2.4.0 adds Lattice and Broadsheet Cards Collection compositions, managed design presets, global Site Identity blocks, live scrolling-media focal previews, and broad composition, Color Signal, selection, and rendering improvements.

This release also fixes legacy Core block alignment validation, keeps legacy spacing compatibility state out of saved template metadata, and keeps ordinary Core Buttons byte-valid until Color Signal is explicitly enabled.

See the WordPress.org changelog for the complete release notes.

2.3.0 - Design Tools, Where They Belong

What's new

Design Customization moved to the Styles tab — Nova's design sections (Color Signal, Space and Sizing, Collection Layout, Motion & Effects, Shape Modeling, Overlay Filter) now render in the block inspector's Styles tab, where WordPress puts design tools. Structural sections (Elements Visibility, Content Type/Details, Media Composition, and block Setup/Layout config) stay in the Settings tab.

The toolbar color trio — enhanced blocks get click-to-cycle toolbar controls whose icons display the current state:

• Color Signal (bars fill with the level)
• Content Area Color Signal on Cards Collection (bars in corner brackets)
• Color Palette (a dot wearing your palette's actual source color)

Every click lands on a design-system-guaranteed state — audition your block's whole color story from the toolbar.

Card Layout inline panel — Elements Stacking is now a core-style icon toggle group directly in the Settings tab, like core's Orientation control.

Improvements & fixes

• Drawer navigation state is scoped per block type and inspector tab; graceful reset when sections change
• Fixed inspector section state leaking between block types
• Regression guard ensuring the withdrawn Density pilot stays out of the Group schema

https://claude.ai/code/session_015jPNr9d7BKVxUpgoQ4pNkh

2.2.0 - Own the Design Decisions

What's new

Nova Blocks now owns the design decisions it already makes. On enhanced core blocks, the core design tools that Nova Blocks functionally replaces are switched off at the availability layer, so two systems no longer fight over the same block:

• Group: core text/background/link color and vertical margins → owned by Color Signal and Space and Sizing
• Separator: core background color and margins → owned by Color Signal and Space and Sizing
• Buttons: core text/background color → owned by Color Signal
• List: core text color → owned by Color Signal
• Columns: vertical margins → owned by Space and Sizing (colors stay core — Nova doesn't replace them there)

Everything Nova Blocks does not replace stays untouched: padding, block spacing (gap), typography, borders, Columns colors, List background/link colors.

New novablocks/core_tools_availability filter for adjusting which core design tools are managed by Nova Blocks.

Other changes

• The minimum required WordPress version is now 7.0
• Fix: Cards Collection editor previews
• The dead "Content Area Padding" control on Group/Columns is now formally opted out via a granular spaceAndSizing.contentPadding support flag (no behavior change — it was already hidden)

https://claude.ai/code/session_015jPNr9d7BKVxUpgoQ4pNkh

2.1.21 - Block validation & nav className fixes

Fixes

• Block validation recovery — Resolves the remaining "unexpected or invalid content" / "Attempt recovery" prompts in the Site Editor on enhanced core blocks (Group, Columns, Separator) for content saved before the space-and-sizing feature existed. Nova now leaves markup that carries none of its --nb-* sizing variables untouched, instead of injecting a manufactured default property set that no longer matched the stored output. This surfaced when importing older starter content (e.g. Anima LT restaurant/blog starters) into the block editor.
• Header navigation classes — Preserves user-authored CSS classes on header navigation items through the block-editor navigation round-trip, so custom classes (for example call-to-action or external-link styles) survive projecting to and from the WordPress menu system.

Full technical detail in the changelog (readme.txt).

2.1.20 - Current Item Featured Image Media Source

New: Add a "Featured image from current item" media source for Supernova/Cards Collection cards, allowing custom card content to use the current post/page featured image.

Improved: Keep custom card content and layouts intact when using the current item featured image source, and return to manual media when media is selected manually.

2.1.19 — Header navigation in the block editor + fixes

Preliminary release to gather user feedback ahead of the upcoming Pixelgrade Plus–gated features.

New

• Edit the header navigation directly in the block editor — inline core/navigation editing projected into the menu system, special items (search, cart, dark mode), menu-item badges, icon/label display modes, and inline core/site-logo.
• Cloud-served block pattern library with free/premium tiering.
• FacetWP Pager block + FacetWP pagination inside Supernova Query Loops.

Fixes

• Restore Parallax/Doppler scrolling effects on custom post type pages (a null reference could abort the frontend engines). (#544)
• Resolve "unexpected or invalid content" on enhanced core blocks (Separator/Group/Columns): --nb-* sizing vars now serialize unitless to match the frontend, with an automatic one-time content migration. (#545, #548)
• Match the editor Parallax/Doppler preview to the frontend (scroll-container fidelity). (#546)
• A broad round of editor/frontend fixes across Cards Collection, Food Menu, Author Box, Post Comments, Sharing, Media Composition, OpenHours, FacetWP, Google Map, and the augmented core blocks. (#547)
• Mobile Parallax viewport height and mobile menu open-color contrast.

2.1.18 beta.541 - Mobile parallax orientation fix

Beta build for customer validation.

Includes commit 50c5965 for #541: Nova Blocks scrolling-effect now measures mobile parallax viewport height from visualViewport, innerHeight, or documentElement.clientHeight instead of screen.availHeight, avoiding Supernova carousel parallax jumps during mobile orientation changes.

Install by uploading the attached zip in WordPress Admin > Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin and choosing to replace the existing Nova Blocks plugin.

Internal plugin version remains 2.1.18; this GitHub release is marked as a prerelease.

2.1.18 - WordPress 7.0 compatibility

Changes

• Move Nova block metadata, manual JS registrations, generated sidebar blocks, and legacy PHP fallback registrations to Block API v3 for WordPress 7.0 iframe editor readiness.
• Remove Nova-owned WP 7 editor console warnings from the Headline block, editor preferences, and Nova Blocks Tools sidebar.
• Fix duotone overlay filter behavior by hiding the strength control and neutralizing the rendered strength when duotone overlays are selected.
• Include the recent legacy Hero block compatibility, Site Editor dirty-state cleanup, mobile header fixes, card frame structure fix, and Style Manager palette timing fix.

Verification

• Built release zip with Node 22 via npm run zip.
• Installed the final zip on the WP 7.0-RC4 Studio site and verified 29 browser-visible Nova blocks use API v3 in the iframe editor.
• Verified server registry reports no Nova block type below API v3.
• Ran native Node tests, focused Jest tests, PHP syntax/contract checks, and Plugin Check.

2.1.17 - Post-format blueprints and masonry fixes

• Add post-format blueprint cards for quote and image posts, including the editorial quote style.
• Add the below-content metadata position for post cards.
• Restore multi-column masonry packing on the frontend and in the editor preview.
• Refactor contextual post cards to use the shared runtime palette tokens.

2.1.16 - Slideshow hero content signal fixes

Patch release for Supernova slideshow hero content signal healing.

• Fix stale content signal 0 states in saved frontend slideshow heroes so stacked full-width single-column query slides keep the intended media/content colors.
• Fix the same stale slideshow hero content signal state directly in the editor preview and persist the corrected attributes.